Are OLED TVs Worth the Money?

If that HD LCD TV is no longer looking so HD, you might be considering taking a dive into the world of 4K television. If you take a trip to your local electronics shop, you’ll be sure to be seeing OLED TVs being touted as the kings of 4k television, but why is that and are they really worth the extra money?

What Are OLED TVs

OLED stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diode (fancy), and they work in an entirely different way from the LCD screens you’re probably used to. Whereas LCD uses a backlight to light up the individual liquid crystals, OLED works by passing a current through a carbon-based film, causing it to light up. So, what does that mean? Basically, the pixels on an LCD screen have a light that shines through them from behind, while OLED pixels emit their own light.

Why Are They So Good?

Since OLED pixels emit their own light, it means that when they’re off they’re off. I’m sure you’re thinking “whoopty doo”, but this actually has a big impact on both your image quality and the colours that your TV can show. When an LCD pixel is turned off (whenever there is black on that part of the screen), there is still a backlight on behind it which results in a dark grey colour, rather than actual black. Since OLED can depict black properly, it makes the image appear much sharper and the other colours much brighter.

OLED TVs’ self-emitting pixels also means that they can be watched from almost any angle without losing image quality, which makes for a much better viewing experience for the whole room rather than just those sitting right in front of the screen. OLED’s tend to only come in the biggest sizes as well, so if you’re after a big centrepiece screen for the living room or if you’re building your own home cinema, OLED is the right choice for you.

What About That High Price

Annnnnd here is the downside to OLED TVs: they cost a bit more (sometimes quite a bit). The cost of OLED TVs has mostly been to do with the market being pretty much cornered by LG and Panasonic allowing them to inflate their prices. However, there has never been a better time to get an OLED TV with more and more competitors entering the market and driving down costs. If you’re happy to wait a little longer until you buy your TV, then you’ll be able to grab an OLED for a pretty decent price even at RRP.

So now you know what all the fuss is about you might decide that an OLED TV is exactly the thing that you could be doing with. If you’re thinking of purchasing one, make sure that you have a shop around and find the right size and brand for you.